Police investigating links between Sandy Hook shooter and violent games

Detectives in Connecticut are investigating alleged links between the Sandy Hook school shootings and the killer’s love of violent videogames. A new report has suggested that the shooter owned thousands of dollars worth og violent titles, and that the shooting was his way of emulating them.

A report in the Hartford Courant states that the shooter (who I’m choosing not to name here) was a troubled boy living under a mother who was obsessed with guns. Private investigator Richard Novia goes on to suggest that both, “the guns and the violent video games [he] played may well have been an unhealthful combination for the troubled boy.”

The report goes on to say that a police search of the shooter’s home unearthed “thousands of dollars worth of graphically violent video games”, without naming any of them, and that, “detectives working the scene of the massacre are exploring whether [he] might have been emulating the shooting range or a video-game scenario.”

It was also noted that before the killings took place, the shooter destroyed his PC hard drive, which the report suggests was a way of destroying evidence of him having played violent video games.

What do you make of the above? I wrote an opinion blog after the shootings at arm’s length, suggesting that perhaps the gaming press shouldn’t be overly-cynical when approaching the idea that violent games ‘may’ have some impact on kids. However unlikely, it shouldn’t be ruled out just yet due to gaming’s infancy.